Washington Nationals: Stephen Strasburg dismantles Marlins in finale

Despite working with some reduced velocity, Washington Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg was able to dismantle the Miami Marlins on Tuesday.

The Washington Nationals managed to pull out a series split against the lowly Miami Marlins. They did so behind a dominant Stephen Strasburg who was flat out dominant for the most part in the game.

The right-hander managed to strike out 11 Marlins over six innings while giving up just two runs. The only innings the hosts seemed to muster up much of a threat was the fifth inning with the Nationals nursing a 3-1 lead.

He surrendered three straight hits and then walked Peter O’Brien, who had homered off him earlier with two outs. He was able to strikeout Brian Anderson with the bases loaded to restrict the damage expertly.

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His velocity though, was once again lower than it has been previously, sitting at roughly 95 mph. Although it’s not a drastic drop, it’s meant that he’s had to adjust by throwing more offspeed pitches while knowing he can’t blow the upper 90s fastball by the hitter.

He was able to lower his ERA on the season to a slightly prettier 3.83 despite his mid-season struggles. Stephen Strasburg will hope to finish the year strong yet again, and his next outing will come against the same opposition next week.

Bryce keeps on strolling

In one of the more bizarre box score lines of the year, superstar outfielder Bryce Harper managed to walk all five times that he stepped into the batter’s box. So yes, he started and finished the game, and finished with a 0 for 0 line.

The five walks were a season-high in the National League, and the only player that can match the feat this year in the major leagues is Rougned Odor. He now sits in the top 10 in the majors in on-base percentage and is also top 5 in the NL.

The free passes brought his season total all the way up to 123, just one short of his career high 124 that he had in his MVP 2015 season. So despite the suppressed batting average, he’s still getting on base at an elite clip and 2018 won’t affect the contract he gets in the offseason too much.

Turner gets knocked down but gets up again

In one of the scarier moments on Tuesday, we saw Trea Turner get hit in the helmet by a hanging slider from Tyler Kinley. Thankfully, he appeared to be ok after the hit, as on the very next pitch he swiped his 40th base of the season.

It was good to see the shortstop get back up pretty quickly and showing no ill effects from the pitch. He went 2 for 4 on the day and seems to be on another one of his streaks this week.

He’s currently on a seven game hit streak with his two-hit showing on Tuesday night, and has a hit in 16 of his last 18. Despite this, the hope of any batting awards has died down, and he’ll now hope his defense can steal him a Gold Glove award come the end of the year.

After a rare Wednesday off-day, the Washington Nationals will travel back home to face the New York Mets. Max Scherzer will get the ball as he faces Jason Vargas in a seemingly lopsided matchup.